Ad of the Day: Peanut’s medical illustrations reframe female healthcare
Peanut, an online community for women, has released a digital gallery of illustrations that aims to accurately represent the diversity of women and their bodies within the medical field.
The campaign aims to show a wide range of women’s bodies / Peanut
‘The Reframing Revolution’ royalty-free images can be found on the organization’s website and are the result of a collaboration with Dr Somi Javaid, OB/GYN doctor, surgeon and founder of HerMD, and the team at Biotic Artlab.
Women have historically been misrepresented in healthcare, portraying all female anatomy as white, slim, hairless, young and able-bodied. However, the reality is there is no ‘normal’ when it comes to body types. Real-life experiences have been addressed in the gallery, which include bruising from IVF injections, linea nigra, pregnancy, C-section scarring and jaundice in babies of different ethnicities.
“It’s just as important, if not more so, for women to see themselves in healthcare as they do in media and business. Women have been misdiagnosed and mistreated because their healthcare provider didn’t recognize their physical symptoms on non-white skin,” said Michelle Kennedy, founder and chief executive officer at Peanut.
“Our goal with these new illustrations is to not only educate patients and the medical field, but society at large. Women and mothers in all their forms, sizes and identities need to be represented. At Peanut, our mission has always been to facilitate a safe and supportive space for women to share their experiences and seek advice without fear of judgment. These illustrations serve to create an open dialogue, better represent women’s experiences and improve the knowledge gap surrounding women’s health.”
According to Peanut, one in four women have some asymmetry in their breasts and 97% of OBGYNs say they have been asked by women of all ages about genital normality – yet none could comment on what normal looked like. Healthcare’s current images of the female body can be extremely damaging to both physical and mental wellbeing, especially for mothers, BIPOC women and those who have traditionally fallen outside of commonly-portrayed bodies.
“As practitioners, it is our job to treat every patient to the best of our ability. When there are clear biases in the tools we use to diagnose, we’re not bringing our best to every patient,” added Dr Javaid.
“These new illustrations will showcase the diverse bodies and skin tones healthcare providers will see in their daily rounds and change the course of how we treat patients who have been underrepresented and undertreated for so long.”
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